April 12, 2010
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SHUEBA, Yemen -- A 13-year-old Yemeni child bride who bled to
death shortly after marriage was tied down and forced to have sex
by her husband, according to interviews with the child's mother,
police and medical reports.
The girl's mother, Nijma Ahmed, 50, said that before her
daughter lost consciousness, she said that her husband had tied her
up and forced himself on her. "She looked like she was butchered,"
Ahmed said.
Elham Assi, 13, bled to death hours after she spoke to her
mother and just days after she was married to a 23-year-old man.
She died on April 2 in the village of Shueba. Her husband, Abed
al-Hikmi, is in police custody.
According to police notes from the interrogation of the husband,
al-Hikmi was upset because he could not consummate their
relationship. and felt under pressure to prove his manhood.
Assi's mother said she also tried to persuade her daughter to
have sex with her husband so as not to shame the family.
Al-Hikmi took his young bride to a nearby medical clinic, asking
a doctor there to administer her tranquilizers so she would not
resist his advances. The clinic said it refused.
Al-Hikmi then obtained performance enhancing pills, according to
the police interrogation, and that night completed the act while
she screamed.
The next day, he returned to the same medical clinic carrying
Assi because she could not walk.
i feel sick to my stomach reading this.
